Recognized by US News & World Report and Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. as among the top one percent of doctors in the nation in the field of neurology, Thomas A. Kent, M.D., is the Neurology Care Line Executive at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. He is also the co-director of the VA Epilepsy Center of Excellence located at the DeBakey VA. One focus of the center is epilepsy that follows head trauma and to expand the knowledge and expertise for this condition.

A stroke specialist, Kent leads the Acute Stroke Team at the DeBakey VA. This team is comprised of neurology residents and staff, a neurology nurse practitioner, emergency room physicians and nurses, radiologist and technicians, laboratory technicians, and medical consultants from neuroradiology, vascular surgery, cardiology and internal medicine. Key individuals on the team are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide immediate diagnosis and emergent treatment of veterans who are rushed to the Emergency Room with symptoms of a stroke. As part of the treatment course for stroke victims, Medical Care Line and the Neurology Care Line established a Neuro-Medical Stepdown Unit in 2007.

In 2011, the DeBakey VA earned the Gold Seal of Approval™ from The Joint Commission as an Advanced Primary Stroke Center. This is the first VA medical center with this designation.

A supporting member of the Polytrauma Program at the DeBakey VA, Kent graduated from the University of Kansas Medical Center and completed his internship, a psychiatry residency, and a fellowship in clinical and basic psychopharmacology at the University of Kansas. He graduated from The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston in 1985 after completing a neurology residency. Kent was UTMB's co-director of neurosciences and a professor of neurology.

Kent is also a professor of Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine; director of Stroke Research and Education; a member of the Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine Graduate Program; and an associate editor of the Translational Stroke Research Journal.

Original source: www.houston.va.gov/pressreleases/support/News_20111110.asp